1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to door protection and the like and more particularly to a reinforced cluster box having pry-proof seams for interlocking mail station doors.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, mail boxes for the delivery and receipt of mail have been associated with individual dwellings such as single family residences. The mailperson on foot could deliver mail to the mail box, or by driving a mail truck or the like, deliver the mail to mail boxes situated adjacent to the road.
Recently, tampering with mail left in such mail boxes has become a problem such that the mail must be secured under lock and key. This also provides some privacy for the recipient of the mail. Additionally, central box units or central receiving stations are often installed in new home developments. These central units contain a plurality of individual mail boxes for several of the residents in the adjacent area. The mailperson then only has to stop at the central station to deliver mail to a number of people simultaneously, allowing him or her to cover a larger number of residents with mail delivery.
The central box units used in such new housing developments often have a five sided box unit with the sixth side accessible via lockable double doors. These double doors often have a central seam as they are hinged on their outward sides. By unlocking the double doors, they swing outward to open up the central postbox area for simultaneous delivery by the mailperson. The exterior of the double doors may have a number of individually locked mail boxes so that each individual with a mail box may retrieve their mail separately and securely as each mailbox is opened by a separate key unique to the appropriate mail box.
Postal regulations control the construction of such central box units in order to provide durable and accessible mail stations to which the mailperson can deliver mail. However, such postal regulations may presume that the mail stations are subject only to environmental attack, such as by wind or rain. Unfortunately, it is not difficult to take a prybar, such as a crowbar or the like, and force it in between the seam present between the two double doors. The doors are then jimmied by popping the lock bar out from its place behind the second door. Upon so forcing the double doors open, the mail is available to any thief such as the one who originally used the prybar. Checks and other financial instruments may be stolen and fraudulently converted into cash, providing the incentive to break and enter into other central post box stations or even the same one on an intermittent or regular basis.
Consequently, there is a need in the art to provide means by which the seam between the two double doors in central post box stations may be made less subject to attack by prybars and the like. The present invention provides a solution to this criminal problem while maintaining the easy and desirable access necessary for the central post box station. Additionally, the present invention provides securement for the individual post boxes.